Evensong (2007)
Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / Dean Ormston / John J. Muth / Zander Cannon / Aaron Alexovich | Page Count: 216
"If mercy's your aim, be relentless in your mercy. Be absolute. Be yourself, until you bleed."
The final volume. It's time for Lucifer to put his affairs in order before taking what he feels is the best course of action. Carey wraps up the series with some single issue stories that pick up the pieces and suggest potential futures of many of the main characters and a few of the more memorable secondary ones.
In many ways the women of the series made the toughest choices and underwent the greatest change. Their growth is explored beautifully. In a perfect world that story would never end. It's a bitter-sweet experience; particularly for my favourite character.
On first reading it surprised me to find that I'd miss the Lucifer cast just as much (and in some cases even more) than I had missed the Sandman cast, but having gone through both series more than once now, I think I favour Lucifer, even if it's not as ground-breaking as its predecessor, objectively speaking.
But more than any other volume, Evensong feels like it’s firmly in the Sandman universe. The structure of certain events and the interactions of the players are on a par with it. Carey states in his afterword that Lucifer was never his character, he was just lucky enough to be able to journey with him, to guide him through adventures and growth. While that is certainly true, in my mind Lucifer was an underdeveloped catalyst until Carey wrote him firmly into Sandman lore. He deserves credit for taking a piece of clay and crafting an exquisite piece of art.
The book collects together Lucifer issues 70 - 75, and Lucifer: Nirvana one-shot.
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